Inhalt des Dokuments

The evidence basis of
recommendations for decisions in public health (report for
WHO)

European health systems
face the common challenge of delivering effective and cost-effective
measures of public health. However, many public health measures and
interventions thought to be beneficial do not yield benefits, and
even sometimes produce more harm than good. Decisions to cease, to
initiate or to continue the allocation of resources to a public
health intervention can therefore have substantial influence on the
performance of health systems. Evidence-based recommendations may be
useful for decision-makers when they are designed as relevant and
practical tools for decision-making. The document by TUB’s
Department of Health Care Management is a part of a series of
WHO-EURO commissioned papers to review evidence-based recommendations
in their utility as tools for decision-making in public health. It
serves as a background for discussion during WHO-EURO’s Fourth
Futures Forum on “Tools for decision-making in Public Health”, on
16 and 17 June 2003 in Brussels.This document reviews the
evidence base, availability and nature of recommendations from
systematic research for decisions. It focuses on systematic reviews
and reports, i.e. those that are published on the basis of collected
and analysed evidence. It first introduces the concept of
evidence-based recommendations for decision-making in public health.
It secondly reviews the evidence base of the conclusions and
recommendations from reports and systematic reviews exemplary on two
public health interventions: screening for prostate cancer and
nicotine replacement therapy.